Israel rethinks anti-Iran warnings
Reuters / Reuters
01-Oct-2009 (2 comments)

Suddenly, the Iranian "existential threat" seems to have receded from Israel's horizon.

It began with a bombshell Sept 18 newspaper interview in which Defense Minister Ehud Barak asserted that a nuclear-armed Iran could not destroy the Jewish state. Similar public remarks followed from the general in charge of all military operations.

Even hawkish Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman now sounds skittish about his government's long hinted-at willingness to go to war rather than see an enemy get the means to make a bomb.

"God forbid -- there's no need to attack anything," he told Israel's Channel Two television on Monday.

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Dan Huck

Hidden Nuclear Facilities, War Crimes, Fomenting Possible War

by Dan Huck on Thu Oct 01, 2009 11:33 PM PDT

Israel has a few other things going for themselves as well. For starters, there is real pressure welling up from the international community for Israel to start coming clean regarding nuclear proliferation. There are many things in their closet they would just as soon not see hung out. Their nuclear dirty laundry is not pretty. And for the moment, they are refuseniks.


Additionally, there is the Goldstone Report which condemns them roundly for their behavior in Operation Cast Lead. They are a recognized state in control of the Occupied Territories. They have very special responsibilities regarding the Palestinians. They have ignored the responsibilities and treated the people as trapped rats in an Apartheid situation. Regardless of whether the Palestinians are further intimidated into withdrawing their presentation of the Goldstone Report at Geneva, this issue is on their plate in a very serious way.


The best thing Iran could do, to paraphrase an ancient Chinese philosopher, is to 'roll up their sleeves, and refuse to fight'; and this is what it appears they are doing. This will put the lie to any threat more serious to the Israelis than Khruschev's "We will bury you" was to the US.  I understand the proper translation of that phrase was something like "Communism will be the undertaker to capitalism".


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Ostaad

Israel would never stop barking on its own...

by Ostaad on Thu Oct 01, 2009 02:56 PM PDT

It was told to SFTU by the adults. Israel's biggest problem is lack of clout. It can cajole, threaten, blackmail, throw a tizzy but it does not have any economic and political clout.

Their entire strategy is to put the US in a position to have to come to their rescue from the mess they threatened they would create in the ME. Now they are told they have no choice but to toe the line, and they are happy to do so. Because this way they will never have to face the humiliation and defeat they'd suffer if they dared attack Iran.


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